The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example system that includes an integrated circuit (IC) 120 powered by a power supply 110. For example, the power supply 110 may generate a voltage (VDDA) having a predetermined magnitude. The voltage VDDA may be supplied to each of a first circuit 130 and a second circuit 140 of the IC 120. However, due to system requirements the first and second circuits 130, 140 may be connected to separate grounds GNDA and GNDB, respectively. The potential difference between the grounds GNDA and GNDB, however, may occasionally spike, such as due to environmental factors. A voltage spike generally refers to an increase in the magnitude of a voltage across the second circuit 140 (e.g., VDDA−GNDB) by more than an expected amount. The magnitude of the voltage spike may be very large (e.g., in the order of kilovolts, or kV) and therefore may damage the IC 120.
Some circuits, however, may require isolation for safety reasons. More specifically, some circuits may control safety-related parameters and therefore may require isolation from the power supply to prevent damage due to voltage spikes. For example only, the second circuit 140 may require isolation. Therefore, isolation barriers may be implemented to isolate a circuit from a power supply. The isolated circuit (e.g., the second circuit 140), however, still requires power.